520 TORRENTIAL RAINFALLS. 



ous change " "dust and desolation yesterday, to-day, a mag- 

 nificent stream, some 500 yards in width, and from 15 to 20 

 feet in depth, flowed through the dreary desert." * 



By the third of July the rains themselves had arrived, 

 and came down in torrents, in the way usual after the 

 bursting of the monsoon. These rains, at first inter- 

 mittent, towards the middle of the month became 

 more constant. All the dry stream beds were now 

 converted into rapid torrents which rushed towards 

 the main stream with impetuous velocity, to swell its 

 already formidable tide ; " banks of earth (says Sir S. 

 Baker) became loosened and fell in, and the rush of 

 mud and water upon all sides, swept forward with a 

 violence which threatened the destruction of the country, 

 could such a tempest endure for a few days." f 



We shall add a short sketch of one of these storms, 

 extracted from the deeply interesting account given 

 by Sir S. Baker, as it may serve to give those of our 

 readers who may never have visited tropical regions 

 some idea of the violence of meteorological phenomena 

 which annually recur in these localities. 



"We shortly halted for the night (he says), as I had noticed 

 unmistakeable signs of an approaching storm." "There was 

 no time to prepare food; the thunder already roared above 

 us, and in a few minutes the sky, lately so clear, was as 

 black as ink." "A rain descended, with an accompaniment 

 of thunder and lightning, of a volume unknown to the in- 

 habitants of cooler climates; for several hours there was an 

 almost uninterrupted roar of the most deafening peals, with 

 lightning so vivid, that our tent was completely lighted 



* The Nile Tribiitaries of Abyssinia, by Sir S. Baker, 1867, pp. 

 51 to 53. 



f Ibid., p. 92. 



